Sir William Gage Middle School is a new-build project located on a busy, six-lane road in Brampton, Ontario, near a major municipal campus. Architect Priscilla Ladouceur, Principal at Mississauga’s Hossack and Associates, successfully created stunning street presence and increased safety on the high-traffic thoroughfare by placing the entrance to the school elsewhere – off a side street where students and others could approach and enter the building safely. The entrance is obvious and welcoming – yet safely tucked away from busy Queen Street.

The project also required Ladouceur to build an efficient school on a small site, despite the fact that Sir William Gage is in a suburban city of wide-open spaces. The school, for grades 6, 7, and 8 students, shares its yard with an adjacent elementary school located beside a fire station. The grounds incorporate a buffer between the school and the busy road and fire station, and the building itself is extremely efficient.

The final product, sheathed in black and yellow masonry, with a tall glass library facing the Queen Street and a tower signaling the entrance, won an Award of Excellence in 2008 for best new building from the Brampton Urban Design Awards.